Life has Changed Episode 2
by Darkfire Galaxy
Summary: After dying in the fight against Jefferson, Max finds herself in a desert being taken in and cared for by a family with roots to an ancient tribe. With their help, she has to gather her strength, collect her thoughts, figure out a way back to Arcadia Bay and if that wasn't enough, what reality is she even in? (If you haven't read Episode 1, you won't understand this.)
1. Chapter 1: Family

Life Has Changed

Episode 2

Chapter 1

 **Author's Note: This is the second episode of Life has Changed. Sorry this took so long. Again, if you haven't read It all has to End and Episode 1 (in that order) you'll need to go and do that first or else this will make no sense at all. The general desert setting is inspired by Beyond Two Souls as well as things like the way the ranch is set up since after looking carefully at the layout of the place, I can't see a better way of living to the fullest if you're in a place like that. The rest of it is going to be completely different since while the two games themselves are similar in some ways, they're also different in many others.**

She'd been travelling through the void for hours. That is if it hadn't been days or weeks yet. Time seemed to blend together in the void. The only thing she knew was that she wasn't quite as dead as she thought. After what felt like an eternity, the light finally subsided around her. Suddenly, she realised she was five feet off the ground. She hit with a dull thud, only to have to spring up quickly at the sound of a passing truck cutting dangerously close to her. As it passed, it kicked up a shower of bright red sand which choked her half to death.

The first thing she registered was the heat. It was absolutely scorching. The second thing she noticed was that she was thankfully fully clothed and everything was in her pockets. She pulled out her phone. The temperature was well over sixty degrees in the shade. Looking off into the distance, she saw an old house by the side of the road. It didn't look too inviting, but the people there could tell her where she was and she could maybe ask them for water.

Walking there took the girl about half an hour. She'd been on a slight hill when she spotted the house, but even though it was barely any distance, she could do little more than crawl along under the desert heat. When she finally made it, she didn't even get chance to knock on the door before it opened. A young looking woman stood there looking slightly angry.

"Please tell me it wasn't you opening the gate and letting one of our horses out!" she growled. Then she looked at the girl properly. Red sand was stuck in her hair and clothes. Her jeans had been ripped in multiple places and patched with black duct tape. She looked like she'd been without food or water for weeks.

"What's going on, Ellie?" a woman's voice asked. She appeared behind her before seeing the girl on the doorstep and gasping. "Come inside, dear." The girl was pulled inside and sat down at a table while the woman ordered her daughter to get her some water. She drank greedily from the cup placed in front of her before turning to the woman once she could speak again.

"Where am I?" she asked. "Who are you?"

"You'll be okay. You're on our land now." The younger girl sat down at the table with her. "I'm Ellie, and this is my mother Chen."

"What's your name, sweetie?" Chen asked. The girl hesitated before replying.

"My name is Max Caulfield."

"How long have you been hitchhiking, Max?" Chen asked.

"I don't actually know." Max answered somewhat truthfully. She hadn't been hitchhiking, but she also had no clue what time she was in or where she was. "I don't even know what the date is."

"It's the twelfth of October 2015." Chen told her.

' _Good, that means the date hasn't jumped at all. I'm not fifty years back from where I started_.' Max thought to herself.

"It's been about a year now." Max lied. Ellie looked at her in admiration.

"Where are you from?" she asked.

"I was born in Arcadia Bay." Max told her. "When my best friend's dad died, my parents moved me to Seattle to get away from it all. I went back there last year to see her, but something happened that means I should be dead. Now I'm just trying to find myself again." If nothing else, the last part was true. Just then, Max heard a door at the back opening. An older boy and a girl the same age as him walked in and did a double-take.

"Who the hell is this?" the boy asked, glaring at Max.

"Domasi, don't be so bad mannered!" Chan snapped. "Dom, Rae, this is Max. Max, these are my other two horrors, Dom and Rae. I'm afraid you'll have to excuse Dom. He's a bit slow in warming to new people." Looking closely at all of them, Max noticed the style of their clothes and hair. It was only subtle, but there were hints of tribal history about them.

"Are you all descendants of one of the tribes?" Max asked.

"Wow, look at this genius!" Dom clapped sarcastically.

"Dom, I swear to god if you don't get your act together, I'll put you outside overnight." Chen growled. Dom went an odd teal shade and quickly shut up. "Yes Max, we are remnants of a tribe. We can't tell you which one specifically, because we don't truly know. The last to know was my mother, and that secret died with her."

"Why did she not tell you?" Max asked.

"She probably did." Ellie said. "The trouble is, Mum cracked her head when we were really young and forgot everything. It was literally our birth certificates that reminded her who we were. Nowadays, we just live by whatever principles from any tribe suit us best. We just picked out a few we liked and live by them now."

"Dinner's ready, everyone." Chen said, moving over to the oven. She opened the door to reveal a smell that rivalled only Joyce's cooking. Max realised she was about to start drooling.

"I'll get plates." Dom muttered, getting four plates out and laying them in front of Chen, Ellie, Rae and his spaces.

"What about Max, Domasi?" Chen asked, using his full name to show she knew exactly what he was trying to do. Rolling his eyes, Dom got another plate out and threw it like a Frisbee. Whether he was aiming at Max or for her, she would never know; but she fumbled the catch and it smashed on the floor. Without thinking, Max extended her hand. Instantly, the pieces all merged back together and flew back into Dom's hands. He'd returned to his original position and threw the plate again. This time, Max easily caught it out the air and placed it in front of herself.

"What the hell was that, Dom?" Ellie snapped. "Why would you even do that?" Dom just shrugged and sat back at the table.

"Domasi, this is your final warning!" Chen raised her voice and Dom flinched involuntarily. "You know what's out there since you went out when you were four. Don't make me throw you out there now!"

"What's out there?" Max asked. "I didn't see anything." An ominous hush fell over the table.

"It's a pack of wolves." Rae muttered. "They're largely nocturnal, but there's a lot of them. They're red wolves, so their coats blend in with the sand. It's hard enough to see them coming by day, but you've got no chance at night." As she spoke, Chen was laying the food on the table. Max noticed it was largely lamb based dishes.

"I take it you breed sheep here then?" she asked.

"Yeah, we have some sheep, some horses and a few donkeys." Ellie told her. "There's another place just up the road that's a full-on ranch. They give us some cow meat in exchange for wool and meat from our own sheep." As everyone started eating, it was mostly silent except for the occasional question from Max.

"So are there other tribal families around here?" Max asked.

"There used to be about twenty all over the place." Rae said. "The trouble was they all got scared off…"

"They went to live in the city." Dom cut in sharply. "I can sort of understand it. Not many people want to live in this kind of weather along with the wolves and the isolation. I've been tempted to go there myself to find someone."

"Who are you looking for?" Max asked.

"He's looking for a girlfriend." Ellie giggled. "It's only natural, I suppose. He's a twenty-four year old who hasn't even had his first kiss yet."

"Ellie, hat's none of her business!" Dom snapped. Just then, the house seemed to shake.

"What is that?" Max asked, putting the chunk of lamb meat she was eating down.

"We've got a sandstorm coming." Chen said calmly as Dom, Rae and Ellie got up, grabbed wooden pallets from hooks on the wall and started putting them over the windows.

"They're nothing to worry about." Ellie explained. "They're a common occurrence at night."

"The best thing we can do now is eat our fill and go to bed." Chen said. "Ellie, in the morning how about showing Max where we keep out spare clothes? She can pick out something to wear while I try and repair what she has. Not to mention, they'll help you move around better." As she said the last sentence, she spoke to Max directly.

"I can't stay too long." Max said. "I have to get back on the road."

"Maybe so, but I was wondering if you'd mind helping out here for a couple of days." Chen offered. "You could help us look after the animals, and in return you'd have food on the table and a bed for the night. Who knows? Maybe you'll find something you're after while you're here. This place holds answers to a great many secrets. Some of which weren't even born on this land in the first place."

"Okay then, it's a deal." Max said.


	2. Chapter 2: Suspicions

Chapter 2

Max lay awake in bed, listening to the wind rattling through the house. The sandstorm was vicious and had carried on all through the late afternoon and long into the night. Unable to stand it anymore, Max swung her feet out of bed. She didn't want to wake anyone, but she needed water. Quietly, she crept to the kitchen sink and filled a cup with water before turning around. She could hear the wind whistling past the windows, but it was almost as if it were calling her name somehow.

In an almost hypnotic state, she put the cup on the counter and walked over to the door. Without her telling it to, her right hand extended to grab the doorknob. Suddenly, the dark mist that seemed to have crept into her head was yanked out again with an almost primal scream. Looking down at her hand, she realised she'd been rewinding. Her power had saved her life. Outside the windows, all she could see was the redness of the sand. If she'd gone out there, she'd have been suffocated to death. As it stood, the worst thing that had happened was that her power had emptied her cup and put it back in the cupboard. Shaking her head to clear it, she grabbed the same cup back from the cupboard, filled it again and went back to bed.

The rest of her night was filled with troubled sleep and the unmistakeable sound of her name carried hatefully on the hellish gale that surrounded the house as it desperately searched for any kind of weakness to grant it entry.

The next morning, Max met everyone else at the table. She was bleary-eyed and grouchy, but she tried her best not to show it.

"I see you're not much of a morning girl either." Rae yawned. "That's okay, Max. Neither are Ellie, Mum and I. Mum's currently sorting the sheep out and Ellie's going to join her once you pick an outfit. You, Dom and I are taking the horses today. Dom's already out there. He's better with mornings than the rest of us. Ellie's waiting for you in her room so you can pick some clothes out. She's apparently lined up three outfits she says are 'durable but versatile'. If I know her, any one of them could last you years."

"Thanks so much." Max said. Rae pushed a plate of pancakes towards her. On the table there was a bottle of lemon juice and some chocolate sauce. "How do you get stuff like chocolate sauce so far out here?" she asked.

"The city's not too far." Rae explained. "There's a guy who visits frequently who drops us some luxuries off. We still keep it so that we could potentially manage without it though. I think Mum quite likes him."

"I probably shouldn't ask, but I've noticed you never mention your dad." Max said, treading cautiously. "Did he go and live in the city or something?"

"Our father got caught outside when a sandstorm hit at night." Rae sighed. "In the morning, there was nothing but bones left. The velocity of it literally stripped him clean."

"God, that's awful." Max muttered. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't mention it to Dom." Rae said. "We had a visitor when it happened, and we were only really young. In the morning, he went with our mother and buried helped her him. Dom blames our dad's death on the man's presence. It's why he's not very welcoming to new people."

"I understand." Max nodded. Without another word, she started eating.

"I hope you'll excuse me if I go and help Dom." Rae said. "Once you're done here, go and see Ellie to get an outfit more suited to the desert and then get outside. I'm sure Mum can excuse the fact you're late up today since you were probably walking all day yesterday, but we'll need you up a bit earlier tomorrow if that's possible." Max nodded as she continued eating. Once she was done, she put her plate in the sink before going to Ellie's room. She knew which one it was from the giant red 'E' painted on the door.

"Come in, Max." Ellie called as Max knocked on the door.

"How did you know it was me?" Max asked.

"I heard your whole conversation with Rae in the kitchen, so I know you're the only other person in here. I wasn't listening on purpose, but this wall is paper thin." To prove her point, Ellie walked over to her bedroom wall and flicked it. It gave a hollow thud and seemed to shake worryingly. "By the way, like Rae said, I really wouldn't discuss what was said with Dom. Even after eighteen years, it's still really raw with him."

"I have a friend who's still pretty raw about losing her father." Max nodded understandingly.

"Is she the one you mentioned yesterday?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, it's her." Max replied.

"Can I ask how it happened?"

"I really don't think that's my place to say." Max said.

"Okay, got it." Ellie muttered. "By the way, you have three outfits here. They're all in varying shades of red and they all have full-body protection which means gloves, goggles and a piece of cloth sewn into the neckline to protect your mouth and nose and stop sand from clogging your airway in a sandstorm. This place is usually pretty quiet, but if one hits during the day and catches us out there, that faceguard and the goggles are your only hope of survival." Max nodded to show she understood.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. I've died twice already." Max said.

"Let's not make it third time unlucky." Ellie replied as she handed Max a pair of goggles. "If you get caught in a sandstorm, just pull your hood up, pull the goggles over your eyes if you haven't already and pull the cloth over your mouth. Just hunker down as best you can and we'll come for you, okay?"

"Okay." Max said.

"Like I said, it most likely won't come to that." Ellie reminded her quickly. "It's just that you need to know what to do if it does."

"I get that." Max had always prided her way of having measures in place in the event of a crisis. "Aren't all of these clothes a bit thick for the desert though?"

"Surprisingly they're not." Ellie said. "This is a really good fabric. It's one of those that can be really cool in the heat and warm in… Well, it's never actually cold here, but you get the picture." Max had a look over each outfit before grabbing one she liked. None of them were her usual style, but it looked the most comfortable. The hood was made of a thin but durable material and was sewn onto the main shirt. The lower shirt sleeves could be unzipped and fastened to points near the shoulders so it could be worn as either a short or long-sleeved shirt. The trousers were the same story. The lower legs could be unzipped and fastened to points near the hips so the trousers could be worn as shorts.

"I like the look of this." Max said.

"I'll be honest, that's the one I would have recommended." Ellie nodded approvingly. "I'm going to help Mum with the sheep. We'll need you outside in ten minutes." Max nodded and went into her own room to change. She shrugged off her shirt and jeans before folding them up and placing them on a stool in the corner of the room. As she changed into the outfit, she thought of Arcadia Bay and couldn't help but wonder what reality she was in. Were Rachel and Chloe still alive and well? She knew she'd have to get back to Arcadia Bay and find out, but part of her sensed something wasn't quite right here. That sandstorm had come out of nowhere, and why had she felt so entranced last night? Something had been screaming at her to open the door. Not to mention, she shouldn't even be alive now. She'd felt herself die in the tornado and she'd felt herself die fighting Jefferson when he'd hijacked her rewind power. That was twice now that she'd cheated death. Yet here she was being put up for a few nights and given clothes by people she didn't know. Promising herself answers, she shrugged on the shirt and trousers before heading for the door.

Max stepped out from the shelter of the house into the harsh sunlight. Looking round, she spotted the family gathered near the gate to the sheep enclosure. Ellie was clearly crying.

"What's wrong?" Max called, running over as Chen and Rae draped a tarpaulin over what they were gathered round.

"It's nothing to worry about." Dom said quickly as he cut Max off and purposely blocked her view. "The sheep panic in the storm, escape from their barn and suffocate. Ellie always gets shaken up by it. She just needs to take a minute."

"Domasi, just get it out the way." Chen ordered. "I know Ellie doesn't want to see this for longer than she has to and I don't particularly want Max seeing it either." Then she turned to Max. "Don't take that personally, Max. It's just that when we lose an animal it's not something we want to involve guests in." Max only nodded as Dom went round the back of the tarp, pulled one of the sheep's legs out and started dragging the carcass round behind the barn. While she didn't want to call these people liars, something bothered her. It was nearly invisible in the sand, but in her experience anything that died from oxygen deprivation didn't usually leave a massive trail of blood when it was dragged along the ground.


	3. Chapter 3: Concerns

Chapter 3

 **Author's Note: Okay, so like I've said before, this chapter is a bit like Beyond Two Souls since I'm using it to focus on the place the family live and also the way they survive in the desert. Sorry it's been so long since the last update but life kept getting in the way. Thanks for the continued support and please remember to review. You guys are awesome.**

Max had spent the last hour moving hay bales into position in the barns and following the advice of the others. Chen had recommended that she keep her hood up and goggles on until she got used to the heat and the sunlight. They didn't have sun cream, so avoiding sunburn and heatstroke was crucial. As Ellie had promised, the clothes had kept her cool in the heat in spite of how thick they looked. It was as she was carrying a hay bale over to the horse stable that Max saw Dom having problems with one of them. It was a white mare and it looked powerful.

"Is everything okay?" Max asked, staggering over with the hay bale.

"It's fine!" Dom snapped irritably before clearly remembering Chen's threat from the previous night. "Sorry, it's just this horse. The rest are fine, but she always thinks she's something special. She never wants to go in with the others. Dom vaulted the wall of the enclosure before turning to Max. "If I sort that hay out for you, can you get my mum and tell her it's the usual suspect? Don't worry. She'll more than understand." As Dom talked, Max noticed he was keeping his hands largely hidden. She instantly knew he was trying to stop her seeing the blood on them from the sheep.

"Why don't I try?" Max asked before realising what she said.

"Be my guest." Dom gestured to the horse who glared at Max. "Her name's Elae." Moving on autopilot, Max vaulted the wall and walked confidently over.

"What's going on?" Rae asked, walking over. Max heard Dom say something in a language she didn't understand. "She's not a moron and she's not going to die!" Rae snapped. "I'll step in when things get dicey." Max chose to ignore the fact that Rae said 'when' rather than 'if' and focus on the one-ton horse in front of her. Almost without her telling it to, her hand extended. Somehow, she felt herself instantly become connected to the horse. Instantly, she calmed down and paced over before nuzzling Max and letting out a snort at Dom, whose jaw had gone slack from disbelief. Confidently, Max placed her foot in the stirrup before hauling herself onto her back and grabbing the reins. Gently, she guided Elae into the stable while trying to work out how she knew what she was doing. Once she'd tied Elae's reins to the metal grip in the corner and topped up the hay, she walked back out to Dom and Rae. Rae gave a standing ovation while Dom just offered a slight smile. Considering the reception she'd had from him so far, that was enough for Max.

"I see you've got a new friend for life." Chen observed as she walked over. "I also see that you've managed to impress Domasi here. That in itself is impressive." Rae burst out laughing.

"Do you need to freshen up a bit?" Dom asked.

"That would be great." Max replied.

"Rae, would you mind showing Max where the shower is?" Chen asked. Rae nodded and indicated for Max to follow her.

"You've got two temperatures depending on which side you stand under." Rae explained as they walked over to it. "The tank with the open top on the right is heated by the sun and the enclosed tank on the left is tepid but it feels like ice in this weather." Rae led Max round the back of the sheep barn to where there was a basic shower set up. "I'll admit it's not much, but it'll stop Dom from seeing anything he shouldn't if he forgets one of us is showering." Rae continued, rapping her knuckles on the corrugated metal sheets that served as shower curtains.

"Anything that means no one can see me will do fine." Max replied.

"That's good to hear." Rae said. "There's soap in the corner and there's a metal box to put your clothes in to stop them getting wet." Max nodded, but her eyes were slightly glazed. "Is something wrong?" Rae asked.

"Yeah, I just can't get the sheep out of my head." Max said truthfully. "Let's just say, I know what it's like to suffocate."

"How do you know what it's like?" Rae asked.

"That's a long story." Max said. She couldn't tell her about her powers. That would be such an unbelievable story that she'd probably get committed.

"It's okay, I shouldn't have asked." Max wanted to sigh with relief as Rae backed off mercifully. "Anyway, have a soak and then we'll see you back at the house for lunch, okay?"

"I'll see you there." Max stepped into the shower and slid the piece of metal across that served as the door. She stripped off, put her clothes in the box and chose to stand under the cold shower. As she pulled the chain to get the water flowing, she heard a noise from behind her. She turned around as she let out a yelp from the sudden impact of the cold water on her before freezing when she saw what made the noise. A figure stood in front of her made entirely of sand. It was human in shape and significantly taller than her. Before she could say or do anything, the figure lunged and grabbed her shoulder. The perpetual and rapid movement of the sand that made up its body literally sanded her shoulder raw in under a second.

Screaming, Max pulled back under the cold shower. She could feel the steam radiating off her body. The figure tried again, but pulled away suddenly with a silent scream of agony as the water touched it. Instantly, the grains of sand were bonded together. The figure's left hand dissolved into red mud. Moving frantically, it broke apart and fled on the breeze through the slight gaps in the metal sheets. Max turned the shower off, dressed quickly and ran back to the house.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked as Max slammed the front door shut. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I think I just did." Max replied. Just then, Chen saw the edge of the wound on Max's shoulder.

"How did you get that wound?" She asked.

"Something just attacked me in the shower." Max said. "It wasn't human. You have to tell me what the hell's going on here!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Chen said in a tone that suggested she wasn't up to an argument. "Come here and we'll sort that wound out." Max walked over and took her shirt off.

"I'll just go and finish dealing with that dead sheep." Dom said, quickly leaving the room. Max giggled before looking back at the damage on her shoulder. This was the first chance she'd had to look at it properly, and it was worse than she thought. If the figure had managed to go much deeper, the bone would have been exposed. Chen pulled out a bottle of something from a cabinet. Max winced as a blue lotion was applied to the damaged area. Instantly, the pain started to fade. Chen bandaged it up and helped Max put her shirt back on.

"How about tomorrow you take Elae for a run if you feel up to it?" Chen asked. "She really likes you and all of us keep getting thrown off. She actually let you ride her. That has to mean something."

"I was never on a horse before though." Max said.

"Yet you brought her back into those stables like you'd been doing it for years." Chen reasoned. "If anyone could do it, you could."

"I'll give it a go." Max nodded. "I'm still curious about what's going on here though.

"How did you actually do that to your shoulder?" Chen asked.

"I don't remember." Max lied. In truth, she was starting to doubt herself. Had the figure really been there?

"You probably burned it on the metal wall of the shower." Chen said. But Max knew in her heart that this was no burn. The skin and muscles looked like someone had put an electric sander to her shoulder and turned it on full. That could only mean that the figure had been there, and whoever it had been was no friend to her. This wasn't just a case of someone having a laugh with her. As insane as it sounded, a figure made of sand had just made a pretty sincere attempt on her life.


	4. Chapter 4: Horse Riding

Chapter 4

Max lay in bed listening to the wind hammering at the house. This time, a scratching noise seemed to accompany it. It was like the wind had nails that scratched at every surface looking for any vulnerability, however slight, to dig into and rip open so it could create a way in and attack her. Feeling restless, she sat up slightly and looked out the window. What she saw took her breath away. There was a man standing outside. His spiky brown hair was totally undisturbed by the storm and no matter how much the wind blew, his suit stayed immaculate. As soon as he saw her looking, the harsh noise of his laughter reverberated through her head as the desert sand reared up and engulfed his figure.

Max woke with a start, not able to remember going to sleep. Sunlight streamed through the window and into her eyes, blinding her instantly and causing her to fall backwards and crack her head on the headboard. Groaning in pain, she dragged herself upright again just as Ellie came into the room.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she took in Max rubbing the back of her head.

"It was just a bad dream." Max lied. She knew for a fact what she saw last night was real.

"So, Dom and Rae were wondering if you wanted to go horse riding today." Ellie said. "I can't go since my wrist still hasn't properly healed yet."

"What happened to it?" Max asked as she swung her feet out of bed and grabbed her trousers from where they were folded on the chair. Ellie rolled up her sleeve to reveal a savage looking bite on her forearm just above her wrist.

"Elae bit me one time when she got out and I tried to stop her." Ellie replied as Max looked at it with a stunned expression on her face. If she didn't know better, she would say it looked infected. How could Ellie be so unflinching? Why wasn't it dressed at all?

"Doesn't it hurt?" Max asked.

"It only hurts when it gets put under stress." Ellie replied. "That's why I can't go riding.

"So, why don't you have a bandage on it?" Max asked.

"Mum doesn't actually know." Ellie confessed. "If she found out, she'd get rid of Elae and I couldn't bare that. I hate seeing animals die for no good reason and there's hope for Elae yet. You can connect with her. I bet you that she'll let you ride her." Max didn't know what unnerved her more. Elae had done that to Ellie and no one else had obviously managed to connect with her like Max had. She still didn't quite know how she'd done that.

"Okay, I'll do my best." Max nodded as she swung her feet out of the bed.

"Thanks Max." Ellie said, going over and hugging her. "Who knows, maybe you'll find some of the answers you're looking for today."

"I hope so." Max replied.

"Can I ask you something?" Ellie asked.

"You just did." Max said.

"Shots fired." Ellie muttered. "I probably shouldn't ask, but how did it actually happen?"

"How did what happen?" Max was confused.

"You said you'd died twice." Ellie replied. "Can I ask how it happened?" Max felt the colour drain from her face. If she told the truth, Ellie would never believe her. But at the same time, she couldn't completely lie. After a second, she decided to just be evasive for the time being.

"I think that's a story for a different time."

"I can understand that." Ellie said, stepping back. "Anyway, Dom and Rae are getting the horses ready soon. If I were you, I'd get dressed now and get out there."

"Okay, I will." Max hauled herself to her feet as Ellie made her way back to the door. "One more thing: when I get back, I'm going to look at that arm myself for you. I don't want that infection getting any worse than it is."

"Okay then." Ellie said. "Thanks again, Max. I think you got here at just the right time."

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"I'll be honest; I've been feeling like something bad might happen for days now. I don't know what, but it's coming very soon."

"That's really comforting, Ellie." Max muttered sarcastically. "That's not freaking me out at all."

"Sorry." Ellie replied sheepishly. "I'm going to just go and clean my room now. Enjoy riding Elae today. Like I said, you'd probably best get out there soon."

"Okay, I will." Max said as Ellie shut her door. Now that she was alone, she threw off the nightclothes Chen had given her the previous night and threw on the outfit Ellie had given her. Once she was dressed, she went to the kitchen to find Rae and Chen at the breakfast table.

"Good morning, Max." Chen greeted her warmly.

"Morning, Chen." Max replied. As she sat down, Chen placed a plate of eggs, lamb pieces and baked beans in front of her. Max almost started drooling right there and then.

"You'd best eat up." Rae advised. "We're going up to a pretty far point in the desert today. Dom wants to pass the burial grounds to pay respects and then we'll pass by the water channel to check on it before going up to the hill. There's a great view that we've got to show you. You haven't truly lived until you've seen it."

"It sounds like it's going to be a nice trek." Max replied as she started eating.

"I've made it loads of times in all my twenty-one years and I've not once been bored on it." Rae told her. "When the sun's at a certain angle, the sand literally shines like a rainbow. If we make good time, you'll be able to see it from the viewpoint we'll show you. When the sun's at that crucial angle, the sand just glitters for miles. It's actually really majestic."

"It sounds brilliant." Max was trying to picture how sand that was pretty much red like roses could possibly look all those different colours at once. When she'd finished eating, Chen took her plate and Rae led her outside to where Dom was prepping the horses. The usual culprit was playing up again, nipping at Dom whenever he tried to put the reins around her neck.

"Is everything okay there, Dom?" Rae asked as she and Max walked over.

"Work your magic." Dom said bluntly, throwing the reins at Max's feet. Max picked them up and vaulted the fence. Instantly, Elae submitted to her, allowing her to fully gear her up under Dom's careful direction from the sidelines.

"So, was she always called Elae, or was that a name you guys gave her when you got her?" Max asked as she worked.

"We named her that." Dom replied. "She belonged to another family that lived around here that... left. Mum thought Chelra was a crap name."

"I think Chelra's a pretty good name actually." Max countered, earning an affectionate nuzzle from the horse. Something about that name sounded familiar for some unfathomable reason. "Besides, if she responds better to it, what do you have to lose?"

"I suppose you're right." Dom shrugged. "Anyway, we'd better head out if we want to get to the viewpoint to see the sand glow and still get back before dark." Rae reached over and threw Max a helmet from off the rack. It was a tight fit since it was Ellie's and it was a bit small, but she managed to get it on. Rae gave Max a hand up since her shoulder was still hurting, but in a few minutes they were ready to set off. Dom opened the gate before guiding his horse through. Max and Rae cantered through as well before Dom shut the gate and mounted. Once he was on his horse, the three of them set off. Or at least, they tried to.

"Are you having problems there, Max?" Rae asked.

"My horse has stalled." Max said, shaking the reigns. "Okay, she's going backwards now! I didn't actually know they could do that!"

"Do you want a hand?" Dom asked as Elae let out a disgruntled snort.

"Shut up and gallop like you're supposed to!" Max snapped. Suddenly, Elae darted forwards and took off at blinding speed. As they went, it left a cloud of red sand behind them.

"We need to get after them!" Rae yelled before setting off after the bolting horse. Even as Dom caught up with her though, she knew it was futile. Dom's horse was faster than hers and even he'd never been able to catch Elae. Neither of them had ever seen a horse as quick as her. It was futile. Max was managing to cling on, but just barely.

"Slow down, Chelra!" she ordered. Sure enough, the horse considerably slowed down. After about thirty seconds, Dom and Rae were able to draw level.

"How did you reign her in?" Dom asked.

"She definitely responds better to that other name." Max told him. "I really think that's what you need to start calling her from now on."

"We'll have to let Mum know." Rae said as the three horses fell into a gentle pace together. They readjusted their direction and headed towards their first stop. Max pulled her hood up where it'd fallen down and relaxed as she went. She had to admit, the sand had a beautiful shine to it, especially at the angle the sun was at. She wished she had her camera to take a picture of the way the sun hit Dom and Rae from a certain angle, casting them into silhouette. They stopped at a short deviation from the path, which was marked out by two rocks. They were the first thing other than sand Max had seen since she'd arrived at the ranch.

"Okay Max, you'll have to wait here." Dom said. "This is a place only our family is permitted to enter. Apart from when our father died, no other person has ever been in there."

"That's fine, I can just sit here and let Chelra get warmed up to me a bit better." Max replied, getting more comfortable in the saddle. Dom walked in and left the girls alone.

"Don't mind him." Rae said. "He really does like to stick to tradition."

"No, I know what he's on about." Max reached into her backpack and pulled out a bottle of water. Chen had stocked her bag full of them so she didn't dehydrate. "I know gravesites are a sacred place, even in places like Arcadia Bay. I can understand you wanting to keep it private." As Max finished speaking, something caught her attention out if the corner of her eye. Wishing she wasn't seeing it, Max looked in the direction of the movement. Sure enough, the sand in the distance was dancing on the wind. As it moved and swayed, she couldn't help but notice the human shape it took.


	5. Chapter 5: Water

Chapter 5

"What is it?" Rae asked, looking in the general direction Max was staring in.

"Do you see that?" Max asked, pointing to the figure. As Rae looked at it, the human shape dispersed and flattened out into the rest of the sand.

"It's probably a sandstorm coming." Rae shrugged. "It doesn't complicate things too much, but it does mean we have to get back soon. Luckily, our last two stops won't take long at all. And if I were you, I'd have some of that water. It won't do you any good sitting in the bottle staring at you." Max shrugged and took a gulp of the water. It was lukewarm from being in the open sun for the short time she'd been holding it, but the bag had done a great job of keeping it cold and fresh. At that moment, Dom walked back out from between the rocks and mounted his horse. He didn't say anything to either of them, but instead snapped the reigns, causing the horse to charge forward like a tank in the direction he indicated.

"Is he okay?" Max asked.

"He's always silent for a good while after visiting the graves." Rae shrugged. "I've learned to just ignore it."

"Okay, well we'd best follow him before we get left behind." Max replied, setting off after him. Rae followed in hot pursuit and soon they were all galloping in formation. Suddenly, a cold chill crept up Max's back. At the same instant, her horse decided to grind to a halt while Rae convulsed and her horse simultaneously fell over. It hit the ground hard and rolled over, throwing her off. Max extended her hand, but time didn't rewind. Rae bounced along the sand like a rag doll. Dom instantly dismounted and ran to help her up.

"Are you okay?" he asked, holding her steady on his arms.

"I didn't feel a thing." Rae said, instantly getting up. "I didn't even feel myself touch the ground."

"At least you're not injured." Dom helped her up and Max passed her a bottle of water. She downed it in one before passing it back and moving to help her horse.

"It's okay, Vasi. Are you able to get up?" she asked gently. In its own time, the horse dragged itself upright. "That's my boy!" Rae cheered, hugging him tight. The horse returned her affections with a snort and a nuzzle.

"What the hell happened?" Dom asked.

"I don't actually know." Rae replied. "But I do know that there's something going on nearby. I sensed it. I'm going to go and check it out."

"I'm heading onwards to the cliff." Dom said, quickly going back and mounting his horse. "I'm not going off course just because you've got the chills."

"I'll go with you." Max nodded to Rae, heading back to Chelra and climbing into the saddle. "I felt something too."

"Okay, it's settled then." Rae said as she mounted carefully to avoid putting too much pressure on Vasi's back. "Max comes with me."

"I'll see you at the cliff." Dom shrugged, before heading off at a full gallop.

"Come on, Max." Rae said, gesturing for her to follow as she set off at a slow pace. As Max set off too, they increased to a quick trot. They didn't want to push Vasi too hard after he just fell, so they didn't dare go into a full dash. Even at their medium pace, they quickly reached where they were going. They knew they were there when rainbows streaked across Max's vision and blinded her.

"What the hell…" Max fought to regain balance and stay on Chelra's back.

"Oh, this is bad." Rae muttered, pointing to where a small fountain of water was spurting upwards. "That's our main water source and the pipe's sprung a leak."

"What can we do about it?" Max asked.

"We're going to have to dig down there and see the damage." Rae shrugged, walking over to Vasi and sliding a shovel from the harness on his back.

"I didn't notice you had that." Max was perplexed.

"Yeah, I take it with me all the time." Rae replied, going over and starting to dig. "Actually, I mostly keep it for defence in case one of the red wolves is ever brave enough to come out during the day."

"That makes sense." Max shrugged. "So, how bad do you think it is?"

"I'm hoping it's just a crack." Rae replied. "If that's the case, I can just take the metal insert from my elbow pad and tie it over the top until we can get someone to weld it in place."

"Okay, so what happens if it's worse than a crack?" Max asked.

"I'll have to radio Mum, get her to call someone out today and switch us to our back-up source of water until they fix it." Rae started digging and Max sat down and waited until she said she was tired so that they could switch. Suddenly, a chill crept up her spine.

"Rae, did you hear that?" she asked.

"It was just the wind." Rae said bluntly as she carried on without even looking up.

"Rae, there is no wind." Max countered. Despite the fact that the sun had barely moved since she'd woken up, Max suddenly felt cold to the point where she started shivering.

"There's a slight breeze." Rae rephrased. Again, she didn't even bother looking up. As she said it, Max heard something definitive.

" _Time to die, Max Caulfield_!"

"When's the last time the breeze said your name?" Max shot back. Just then, Max doubled over as a cold fist seemed to grab her heart. Instinctively, she raised her hand to rewind time. As her power activated, Rae looked over. Time wasn't rewinding and for a moment Max worried her power would backfire again. Suddenly, Max felt the cold grip release her.

"Max, are you okay?" Rae asked, rushing over as a trickle of blood escaped Max's nose.

"Yeah, I'm good." Max lied as she wiped the blood away and tried to stand.

"You're clearly not." Rae muttered, helping her up. "Now are you going to tell me what the problem is, or do I have to pester it out of you?"

"God, you sound like Chloe." Max muttered. "Okay, I'll tell you; but you have to promise not to have me committed."

"Don't worry, Max. I believe you're perfectly sane." Rae assured her. Max decided to tell her everything. She started with what happened on the day she saved Chloe from Nathan and how it created the tornado. She described how she'd escaped from Jefferson and died in the tornado while accidentally creating a new reality, the backfires in her power that followed, the fight with Jefferson and finally travelling through the void before being dumped on their doorstep. She summarised it briefly while giving as much detail as she could. Rae listened intently while digging at the same time. By the time Max was done, Rae had found the damage to the pipe.

"So, that's about it." Max finished. "What's wrong with the pipe anyway?"

"We're going to have to close the pipe off and switch to the backup until Mum can get someone to look at it." Rae told her. There was a load of sand getting in somehow and building up. The pipe was going to go at any time and when it did we ended up with a paddling pool down there."

"I have an idea." Max muttered. Walking forward, she took Rae's arm and walked forward. "Do you have that piece of metal you said about?" Max asked.

"It's right here." Rae unzipped her riding pad and slid the metal insert out.

"Okay, I need you to hold that near the hole at the same angle you pulled the sand out of it." Max instructed. Rae did as Max instructed as Max started rewinding. Gradually, the pieces of the hole knitted back together. The sand Rae had cleared from the pipe tried to reverse as well, but was blocked by the piece of metal.

"That was really clever." Rae nodded as Max stopped rewinding. "So, how does your power work then?"

"If you find out, tell me." Max shrugged, causing Rae to burst out laughing. "Wait... You don't seem surprised by any of this."

"Max, I've seen much weirder stuff out here than that." Rae told her. "Some nights, I've literally seen the desert sand come alive."

 **Author's Note: Okay, so I know it's been ages since I updated and I'm so sorry for that. Unfortunately I was bogged under with college work and other issues I really don't care to talk about. Unfortunately, it will be a while until my next update too. Once I'm done with college work, I will focus on writing out a large chunk of this episode so that I'm a good distance in front on chapters as I like to be. Once that's done, I will upload the Chapter 6 and continue from there. Thanks for being so patient and please remember to review.**


	6. Chapter 6: Chaos

Chapter 6

"Wait... What?" Max couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You've seen it too?"

"What I said was true, Max. There is a pack of red wolves out here and they're very vicious, but they've got nothing on the Night Terrors."

"What the hell are Night Terrors?" Max asked.

"Night Terrors are the spirits of beings whose souls were lost when they perished out in this desert." Rae replied. "They harbour a jealousy of the living for actually managing to survive out here. It was probably one of those that attacked you."

"So you believed me any you never said anything?" Max was angry now.

"Mum tries to deny it when we have guests." Rae told her. "People don't tend to stay long when they find out the desert is haunted. Now since I've answered some of your questions, how about answering some of mine?"

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"I get what you've told me so far." Rae said as she started piling sand onto the exposed pipe. "But you clearly lied to me when I asked what was wrong. If someone has blood tricking from their nose, that means that something is generally wrong. You can't just play that off like you did."

"I'm sorry." Max muttered, embarrassed about being found out. "I just didn't want you to worry."

"Max, this is the kind of place that you can't try and keep something from someone to not worry them." Rae lectured. "Doing that would probably cause them to only worry more."

"You have a point." Max shrugged, feeling like a defiant teenager who knew when the adult was right but still felt like they were doing the right thing. "I don't know what was wrong then. It felt like somebody grabbed my heart and squeezed it."

"When you explained everything to me, you mentioned that Jefferson creep doing something like that." Rae remembered as she finished filling in the hole and stood up straight. "Do you think it could be him again?"

"I doubt it." Max said, getting back into the saddle on Chelra as Rae walked over to Vasi and placed the shovel back onto the harness before mounting the saddle herself and joining Max. "This felt different. Last time he did something like that, he just stopped my heart suddenly and nearly killed me."

"It sounds like you've been through hell." Rae muttered. Max nodded, wondering how this ended up happening to her.

When they turned eighteen, most people got given a car; not time powers that enabled them to fix all their poor life choices at the cost of dying twice, having a near miss once and fighting their way through multiple realities to find the perfect one where they could finally live without a psycho photography lecturer possessing their friends and hunting them while simultaneously infecting them and causing catastrophic headaches that caused their power to backfire on them to the degree that they had to fight a losing battle against them only to die and then get dumped in a desert with no clue where they were, what the hell was going on and no clue how to get back to Arcadia Bay. Yeah, she'd have preferred a car any day.

"So, how far is Arcadia Bay from here?" Max asked.

"It's about four states over." Rae shrugged. "It's not that far if you have a car, a bit further if you have a horse and almost impossible on foot. The vultures would pick you clean before you get fifty miles. Why? Are you thinking of ditching us?"

"I do need to look at getting back." Max nodded. "I never intended to stay here long. I just need to take some time to recharge and then I really need to look at getting back. My friends and family don't even know if I'm alive or dead right now, and that would just be selfish to not let them know." Rae nodded solemnly.

"If you need anything before you go, you only have to ask."

"Thanks, Rae." Max said. By this point, they'd reached the place Rae and Dom had mentioned. Dom sat on the edge of the ridge with his horse stood loyally next to him. As he heard Rae and Max approaching, he stood up and walked over to them.

"So, did your bad feeling hold water?" he asked.

"Don't ever say that again." Rae muttered as Max burst out laughing.

"What?" Dom asked.

"Your water pipe burst, but I fixed it." Max told him.

"How did you fix a burst water pipe?" Dom asked.

"I rewound time." Max said in a sarcastic tone. Rae burst out laughing.

"I swear of all the things in this world, the one thing I would never understand if I lived to a hundred is women." Dom muttered. "Anyway, you guys are just in time. The sun's literally about to get into position." Max and Rae dismounted and walked over to join him.

"You might want to put your goggles on for this." Rae said to her. "When it happens, it will be sudden and it could blind you if you're not careful."

"Okay." Max said, pulling her goggles down over her eyes. As the three of them watched, the sun moved into the perfect angle. As soon as it did, the bright red sand in front of them was lit up like a sudden light in pure darkness. As far as the eye could see, the once red sand now glittered like a shattered rainbow that had been sewn like seeds over the landscape with the promise of many new ones. Rae had been right, it was blinding. But because of the goggles, it wasn't physically so. If anything, it was the majesty of the scene paralysed her and left her dumbstruck.

"Here." Rae said as she passed a large and heavy object to Max.

"Where the hell did you get this?" Max asked, turning her instant camera over.

"It was in your bag." Rae told her. "It fell out when Mum took your ripped clothes to try and save them. The front lens fell out when it hit the ground, but it didn't break. Dom stayed up all night to sort it out for you."

"Thanks so much, Dom." Max said, turning to him.

"I wish you could have seen it, Max." Rae laughed. "It looked like those programs on TV where they give a gorilla in the zoo a phone and let it try and work out what it does." Max burst out laughing at the mere thought of Dom sitting at the table in the kitchen and trying to work out how a camera lens fit back in.

"If you want to take a picture of the sand, then get on with it." Dom said irritably. "The sun's probably going to move out of position soon." Max was just able to pull herself together long enough to keep the camera steady. The flash went off and the image slid out from the bottom of the camera. Max shook it to help it develop before tucking it in her back pocket. Just as she did so, the glow faded from the sand and the normal red colour returned.

"Thanks, guys. That was great." Max told them.

"Well, we couldn't let you 'just pass through' without a look at that." Dom shrugged. "I'll admit I'm not the most welcoming person at first, but everyone needs to see that at least once in their lifetime."

"We'd best head back home." Rae pointed out. "We've got barely half an hour before nightfall." As Max watched, Dom visibly paled.

"In that case, I'm going now." Dom jumped up and walked back over to his horse before mounting the saddle. "If you girls want to stay and chat, that's your business." With that, he was gone. A cloud of red sand kicked up behind him as he went.

"As abrupt as that was, he's actually right." Rae muttered. "We really should at heading back."

"God, I can't wait for supper." Max said as they climbed into their saddles. Even going at a medium pace, Max could feel the power in Chelra's muscles.

"Supper gets repetitive sometimes." Rae told her. "Most nights we have lamb dishes since it's mostly sheep we have here, but Mum does try to change things up."

"It's food at least." Max replied. "I can't remember the last time I had good, solid food. Even if it's repetitive, it's something you should never take for granted. I learned that the hard way."

"Why? When was the last good meal before you came here?" Rae asked. Max couldn't remember that well. Before she'd ended up in the desert, she'd been in the hospital. She'd not been able to eat much in there because of how ill she'd been with her power backfiring.

The last decent meal she'd been near to having was when Joyce was about to make her something, but then her power backfired and halted everything. She didn't bother having breakfast that day because she was so late for class, so the last decent meal she'd had was about five days ago to her body. The fact that she'd jumped back a few days in this reality made it basically the day before yesterday, but that was still a long time to go without food in itself.

"I think it was about five or six days before I got here." Max confessed.

"God almighty, no wonder you're so thin!" Rae remarked.

"It doesn't help that I burn through food quick." Max grinned.

"Come on then, let's get you home." Rae started to pick up the pace. "We'll get a decent amount of food in you. Also, I'd pull your goggles down if I were you. I think we're about to get hit by a sandstorm." Max did as she advised. Sure enough, they were hit by a wall of sand a few minutes later. She pulled the cloth around her neck over her mouth to avoid breathing in the sand.

"How much further is it?" Max asked as Chelra walked into the wooden fence. Max couldn't help but see how calm she was in the storm, but noticed that she had nothing protecting her eyes or mouth. Making a snap decision, she held her breath, took the cloth from round her face and tied it over Chelra's so that the horse's mouth was covered and she couldn't breathe in the sand.

"You need to be slightly to the left." Rae called over. Max adjusted her angle and made it through the gate. Rae directed her into the stables so she could dismount safely. Once that was done, she closed the stable door to shut the horse in and went to take the saddle off her.

"I can't get it to budge!" Max called as Rae dismounted and shut Vasi in his stable.

"Don't worry about it! Let's just get inside!" Rae pulled Max out from the stable by hauling her over the door.

"Damn, you're strong." Max muttered.

"Where's your face shield?" Rae asked. "That thing's your only hope of survival if you need to breathe out there."

"I gave it to the horse because she was choking." Max told her.

"Then how the hell are you going to get back?" Rae was desperately trying to work out how they were going to make it to the house.

"I have an idea, but it's risky." Max replied. "Grab hold of me." Rea placed a hand on Max's shoulder as she focused her power. As the rewind kicked in, Max held back slightly. Eventually, she found a place between time's normal direction and the reverse her power caused. Everything stopped moving completely. Concentrating hard, Max led the way out from the stables as Rae pointed the direction of the house.

"There's not too far to go now." Rae said. "Are you going to make it?" The stress that pausing time caused left Max exhausted. There was also the effort of pushing the immobilised sand out of the way from where it was frozen in the air while simultaneously paying attention to Rae's directions.

"Just don't let go or you'll be frozen in place like the sand." Max replied, evading the question. Just a few steps from the door, blood started pouring from Max's nose. Her concentration was shattered as the pain in her head hit full-force. Even as her vision spun out of focus, Max was able to grab hold of a wooden post by the door. Rae wasn't so lucky and was lifted off her feet screaming. Just then, Max saw a flash of auburn hair as a slightly smaller figure darted past her and threw herself into the air after her sister.

Ellie grabbed hold of Rae and shifted their body weight so that she was in position. Suddenly she kicked downwards, sending Rae crashing to the ground before the storm could get her far enough into the vortex to keep hold of her. Then it dawned on Max: This wasn't just a sandstorm. The shape of it was similar to the tornado that threatened to wipe out Arcadia Bay when she escaped from Jefferson. Racing forward without a second thought, Max grabbed hold of Rae before forcing herself to rewind again. The dust devil spun in reverse, throwing Ellie back onto the doorstep as she did a running moonwalk back into the house. As soon as the door shut, Max stopped rewinding. Ellie raced out again and spotted Max and Rae.

"Get in here, quick!" she called, struggling not to choke on the harsh red sand.

"I can't feel my legs!" Rae screamed, panicking as she struggled to get to her feet. Ellie ran to the side of the house and ripped the trough's hose line from one of the water butts.

"Grab it!" she ordered, throwing it to Max. Max seized the hosepipe and Ellie started pulling them in. Realising it was going too slowly, Max rewound again. The rope tore free from Ellie's hands and threw itself through the air, dragging Max and Rae with it. They landed in a heap at Ellie's feet just as the hose jumped back into her hands and she got ready to throw it for them. Doing a double-take, she realised they'd moved five metres at a speed faster than light.

"Help me up!" Max held her hand out as Ellie hauled her upright. Blood was pouring from her nose again. Working together, they dragged Rae inside as Ellie shut the door.

"How did you do that?" Ellie asked as Max tried to stop her nose from bleeding.

"We need to help Rae." Max broke into a coughing fit as blood ran into her mouth and throat when she tried to speak. She'd really overused her power this time.

"Mum, we need help!" Ellie screamed. Chen came running and instantly threw a box of tissues towards Max.

"What's wrong with Rae?" she asked.

"Rae can't feel her legs." Max told her as she pressed the tissue to her nose. Unlike her previous nosebleeds from the overuse of her power, this one didn't stop almost instantly. This just kept running like an open wound.

"Ellie, help me get her to her bed. Max, you stay here and try to stop your nose." Chen ordered.

"You can use the room I'm in. It's closer than hers." Max said.

"Thanks Max." Chen nodded. "Okay, Ellie. Max's room it is." As they carried Rae off to Max's room, Max decided to put the wooden pallets up over the windows in case the sandstorm hit the house. As she grabbed the first pallet, she noticed a figure outside the window. Formed from the sand that battered the house, the figure advanced on the window looking to break in. Max slammed the pallet in place while still trying to stop her nose from bleeding. Just then, the same harsh voice from the desert drifted through her head again.

' _It's time to die_!'

"I have better things to do." Max slammed the second pallet in place just as the sandstorm hit the house. The pallets did nothing to protect it as the windows imploded. The force actually lifted Max off her feet and catapulted her backwards into the opposite wall. She slammed into it hard, the impact shattering a picture frame. Luckily, the shards of glass couldn't penetrate Max's clothes and damage her. She looked up to see sand billowing into the house in a way that reminded her of smoke. She hauled herself to her feet from where she'd slid down the wall and ran towards the room she'd been using. Rae was in there screaming as Chen poked and prodded her to find the damage.

"What's going on?" Ellie asked.

"Two of the windows imploded. The sandstorm just hit full-force." Max told her. "We need to get out of here. In three minutes or less, this place is going to be beaded glass and brick dust."

"Rae's really put her back out. We'll have to carry her." Chen turned to Max just as Dom ran in.

"I heard the racket, what's going on?" he asked.

"We need to evacuate and Rae's done the next best thing to breaking her back." Ellie told him. Can you and Max get her out of here while Mum and I try and save at least some essentials to see us to the city?"

"I'm on it." Dom nodded. "Max, get her head. I'll grab her feet."

"Why don't we just use the bed sheet as a carrying hammock to give her back some support?" Max suggested.

"You are full of good ideas right now." Dom muttered as he started bundling the duvet around Rae. Just then, the window imploded like the ones in the front room. Glass showered Dom's chest and face.

"Domasi, are you okay?" Chen asked.

"My eyes!" he screamed as blood ran from his torn eyelids. Blood ran from his ruined eyes, soaking his shirt as he tried to shut them tighter and causing the glass to embed deeper into his eyes. Max raised her hand and focused. Her power activated causing the glass to fly out of Dom's eyes as the window repaired itself. As Max stopped rewinding, Dom leaned forward again and started to bundle the duvet up around Rae.

"Get down!" Max yelled, grabbing Dom's head and pinning it to the bed. She turned her head away just as the window imploded. Glass showered their backs as Max kept Dom pinned. She let him up as sand started entering through the window.

"We need to move!" Ellie yelled. She and Chen helped get Rae into the hall before Max and Dom fully took over. Dom was about to move to the front door when Max stopped him.

"Use the front door!" she instructed. "The sandstorm hit from the rear. If we go out the back way, we'll be walking straight into it."

"Okay." Dom nodded, changing course for the front door. "By the way, thanks Max. That could have easily blinded me back there."

' _You don't know the half of it_.' Max thought to herself as they burst out through the front door. As soon as they made it into open space, more of the sand figures spotted them and went on a full-on attack. They charged forward, the red desert sand accurately conveying their fury. Just as they reached Max and Dom, Max extended her hand. Instantly they were frozen in place as she forced them back.

"How are you doing that?" Dom was visibly scared.

"Dom, I can't hold them back with only one hand!" Max's voice showed strain. "I need you to properly take Rae." Dom scooped her into his arms and held her, allowing Max to properly counter the threat. Not even knowing how she did it, Max thrust her arms forward. A pulse of energy that was so strong it was almost visible smashed into the sand figures. They instantly shattered back into each individual grain of sand. The peace was short-lived however.

Almost immediately, the figures rose up again. Max shouldn't have been surprised. It wasn't like they were short of sand to give them strength. Max was about to destroy them again, when a noise off to her right made her look over. Suddenly, the house exploded. Shards of flaming wood and brick rained down at them. Max raised her hands and used her power to shield Rae and Dom. The bits of brick were the hardest to shield from as they were considerably more lethal.

Sensing the hopelessness of the situation, the sand figures dispersed. There was no honour in killing a target while they were protecting others from a separate threat. This display of courage for others by Max actually registered with them. It made them realise that just because they perished all those years ago, it didn't mean they had to be jealous of those who still lived. Instead, they should have focused on helping them as best they could. As they watched, Max collapsed from exhaustion next to where Dom was just setting Rae down. Combining their energy, they fell into harmony with one another, and with the world around them. More of them rose up to join this gathering. What started as twenty became fifty, then a hundred, then more. A wave of heat washed over the entire desert. The sand around them shifted and changed as they laid themselves back down to their eternal graves.

 **Author's Note: Yes, I'm finally back. It took a while, but I finally got Episode 2 full written. I'll upload the last couple of chapters at fairly wide intervals to give me time to get well into writing Episode 3. This episode has less chapters, but is almost the same length as Episode one. It's just that each chapter is bigger. Hope you enjoy. Please remember to review. Your support has been great so far. Thanks so much to everyone who stayed with me over the long break I took.**


	7. Chapter 7: Goodbyes

Chapter 7

"Max, are you awake?" Rae asked. Max's eyes drifted open as dots and spirals flashed in the corners of her eyes.

"I'm just about there." Max groaned as she hauled herself up. The first thing she noticed was the itching in her hair. She reached up to be met with straw. Pulling herself up slightly, she looked around to see that she was in the stables. Above her, Chelra reached down and rubbed Max's face with the edge of her muzzle.

"She never left your side." Rae told Max. "I'll admit, if I were able to, I probably would have chosen to go and help Dom instead of being stuck on my back here."

"How are you doing?" Max asked.

"I'll live." Rae muttered. "That's the important thing. Otherwise, Dom would be on his own by now."

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"After the house blew up and you collapsed, he went frantically shifting through the wreckage." Rae told her. "Ellie and Mum..."

"Don't tell me..."

"Max, don't blame it on yourself." Rae said. "You've done too much for us for that. You saved my life for a start. You figured out the problem with Chelra and you also stopped my brother from being blinded. To top it all off, you faced up to the Night Terrors to protect us. You deserve a medal for all you've done."

"Do you think you'll be able to walk again?" Max asked.

"I don't know." Rae shrugged, wincing at the pressure even that simple move put on her. "I hope I will, but if not then it should be easy to get a place in the city that's designed for easy access. Apparently, if you can't afford it but need it, it has to be provided."

"Yeah, that's right." Max nodded. "You can tell them that due to an accident, you've now become homeless and disabled. They'll have to provide some sort of accommodation. But what about everything you have here?"

"Dom's going to take care of that." Rae replied. "He's going to rebuild and downsize so the place is small enough that he can do it himself. If I can recover from this, I'll move back and join him, but I'm not hopeful."

"God, I really screwed this up!" Max felt tears sting her eyes. "I was only supposed to stay a few days and help out while I found answers."

"Max, you only did what you could." Rae reached over with difficulty and took Max's hand. "No one could ask any more of you."

"Do you need to sit up a bit?" Max asked.

"I can't, I've tried." Rae rolled her eyes. "If I sit up any, it feels like my back is about to collapse."

"I'm sorry, Rae." Max muttered.

"Honestly, you have nothing to be sorry about." Rae replied. "There are some things you just can't change." Max was about to reply, but Dom entered.

"I see you're awake." His face was a mask of stone that looked like it had aged ten years in the space of a day.

"How are you right now?" Max asked. "I'm so sorry about what happened."

"Max, there was nothing you could have done." Dom shrugged. "But if you need something to lift your spirits, I suggest you look outside." Wondering what he meant, Max picked herself up and went to look outside. She had some difficulty due to every joint in her body protesting.

"I can hear you creaking from here." Rae jabbed. Max chose to ignore that and focus on getting to the stable door. She looked outside to see one of the most beautiful things ever. Dawn was just about to finish breaking over the horizon. The formerly red sand was now shining a brilliant gold colour. Max couldn't resist. She reached into her bag and grabbed her camera. As the camera flashed and she took the picture, she noticed something off to her left. She looked over to see one of the Night Terrors from before. It stood tall. the golden sand that made up its body swirled in the breeze. This time, it didn't try to kill her. As it walked over, it extended a hand. It gently placed it on her shoulder; but instead of sanding it raw like before, it merely dusted over it. Max couldn't tell if it was just the heat or not, but she could swear the figure nodded.

A few hours later, everything was prepared. Max made one of the most difficult journeys of her life as she gripped Chelra's reigns with one hand and steadied Rae with the other. They rode side-by-side with Dom, who also helped to steady her.

"Okay Max, I need you to promise me you'll treat this place with respect." Dom said to her. "You'll be the second person outside our tribe to ever go there and it's some seriously sacred land."

"If it's so sacred, why are you letting me in at all?" Max asked.

"Like I said Max, you've done more for us than any other visitor we've ever had." Dom replied. "You deserve to be there, probably more than I do actually."

"How are you doing, Rae?" Max asked, looking down at where Rae was lying. They'd strung her hammock between the two horses to carry her and then strung another blanket over the top to keep the sun off her.

"I still can't feel my legs, but at least I'm not swinging too much. The motion was making me queasy before."

"Well, we're here anyway." Dom helped Max manoeuvre into position and get into a place where it would be easier to unhook Rae. They took the hammock down before carrying her into the canyon between the two cliffs. In the clearing, there were so many sticks planted in the ground that it was like someone had tried to plant a forest.

"What are all of these?" Max asked.

"Those are grave markers." Dom told her. "Try not to tread on any of the patches of ground near them."

"Since there are so many of them, I'll just follow you." Max said, looking at the sea of graves in front of her. "How are there so many, anyway? I thought you were just a small family."

"Yeah, but all the other tribal families would bury their dead here over the generations." Dom told her as they started navigating through. "We're not the first, but I worry we might be the last."

"That's sacrilege." Max muttered. "This is a beautiful place."

"Yeah, it is." Dom muttered as they reached two open graves. "Still, these two can be happy here." Max looked down at the two bodies wrapped in sheets in the bottom of the graves.

"I don't care what anyone says, I still think I should have been able to stop this." Max muttered. Rae reached up and took Max's hand in her own. Max was so startled that she nearly dropped her end of the hammock she was carrying.

"It was a simple accident, Max." Rae said. "No one here can blame you. You shouldn't blame yourself."

"I suppose you're right." Max shrugged.

"Does anyone want to say anything?" Dom asked.

"There's not much for me to say." Max said. Ellie saved my life by inviting me in and Chen saved my life by giving me a roof over my head and food for the last few days. I know I racked up a massive debt to them and..."

"...and you paid it by saving Dom and I." Rae cut in.

"If anything Max, I owe you a lot; starting with an apology." Dom said. "I know I'm slow to warm to people, but when we first met, I threw a plate at you. Then you agreed to stay and I thought you'd be one of those people who said they would work and then had enough after a few hay bales. I've underestimated you at every turn and then you go and save me and Rae. We literally owe you our lives."

"Thanks, guys." Max nodded. Dom and Rae wrapped their arms round her as best they could before turning back to the graves. There were a few heartfelt goodbyes from Dom and Rae before Dom started shovelling dirt back into the graves. Max looked over on impulse to see something catch her eye. One of the Night Terrors was standing on the edge of an alcove. As Max looked, she noticed the mouth of a cave behind the figure.

"What do you see, Max?" Rae asked.

"What's in that cave over there?" Max asked.

"What cave?" Dom asked. Max pointed him in the general direction, but he couldn't see it.

"I don't know what you're pointing to." Dom shrugged. "There's never been a cave there, but if you can see one then go and check it out. It's likely that the path you see is for you and you alone."

"Are you going to be okay here for a second?" Max asked Rae.

"I'm not too much of a cream-puff to lie in the sun, Max." Rae said jokingly. "Mind you, could you do me a favour and get whatever it is I'm lying on out from under me? It's sticking me in the back." Max gingerly lifted her up and reached under her, trying to avoid putting more pressure on her back. She found a stone and pulled it out, placing it behind her.

"Is that it?" she asked, lowering Rae back down to see if she was comfortable.

"That's it." Rae nodded.

"Okay, I'll be back in a second." Max made her way over to a pile of boulders in the corner. It took some effort, but she managed to climb them to reach the alcove. As she made it up there, the figure turned around and walked into the cave. Max followed cautiously. As she entered the cave, she spotted something that filled her heart with dread.

Sat in the centre of the cave was a stone structure that looked almost like a naturally formed altar. In the middle of that, sat something that Max hoped never to see again. This was the object that caused all of the trouble in the first place. This was the thing that marked the start of her changing fate and destiny to the point that it altered the course of everything.

The photo felt cool to the touch as Max picked it up. As she held it, every detail of it slowly soaked in. She remembered the bucket so conveniently placed to create just the right colour contrast of background to optimally show off the vibrant blue of the butterfly's wings. As she held it, small fragments of another reality seemed to bleed through into her head.

' _I feel like I took this shot a thousand years ago_!'

' _All that would take is for me to_...'

' _You are my number one priority_!'

' _Whatever you choose, I know you'll make the right decision_.'

' _Chloe, I can't make this choice_!'

' _No Max, you're the only one who can_!'

Max dropped the photo like it was coal from a blacksmith's furnace. The sand figure was back and stood at her side.

" _Take it_."

"I wouldn't touch that thing if you paid me!" Max snapped, fully aware of the insanity in the notion that she was talking to a figure made of sand. "If that reality comes to pass and I have to decide whether to give Chloe up or not, I would save her every time!"

" _The options you see immediately aren't always the only ones_." With that, the figure began to disperse into the sand that covered the floor.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" Max asked. "Please, wait! I've got questions!"

"I bet you have." Max spun around at a voice from behind her. Dom knelt behind her securing Rae for the ride back.

"The cave..."

"I know." Dom nodded. "You completely vanished for about ten minutes. I believe you went somewhere. Not to mention, you weren't holding that photo when you left." Max looked down in alarm to see that in her left hand, she held the blue butterfly photo from the cave. Max stuffed the photo into her bag. She could always bury it somewhere on the way back to Arcadia Bay.

"Are you guys ready to head back?" Max asked.

"We're ready when you are." Rae gave a dramatic salute. Max walked over and picked her up. Dom took the other end and together they carried her out of the canyon. Once they'd fixed her to the horses, they made it back to the stables in their own time. By the time they'd made it back, the sun had finished setting. There was not a word said among them as they lay down in the stables and went to sleep.

The next morning, Dom was the first one up. It took him a few minutes to decide Max had enough of a lie-in before affectionately kicking her awake.

"What the hell-" Instantly, Dom covered her mouth to silence her before holding a finger to his lips. Max got the message that he didn't want to wake Rae up. Slowly, she got to her feet and followed him out into the main yard. They didn't exchange a word as Dom walked over to the hay barn and unlocked it.

"What is that?" Max asked as Dom climbed into something in the barn and started it up. The engine roared into life as Dom drove it out. He turned the engine off before climbing out and shutting the door.

"This was Mum's old car." Dom said. "It's just an old Peugeot but I've managed to get it going."

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Max asked.

"The way I see it, with the combined weight of the three of us we can get about fifty miles on the fuel we've got." Dom shrugged.

"I thought you were going to rebuild here?" Max said with confusion plain on her face.

"This place is a secondary concern to me, Max." Dom told her. "My sister's health comes first. I don't care what she says, she needs a hospital. If there's even a slim chance they can help her walk again, I'll take it."

"Okay, I get it now." Max nodded.

"Anyway, I found a fuel stop on the map about forty miles from here in the direction of Arcadia Bay. I figured what we could do is have you drive us there and then ask the man behind the till to call Rae an ambulance and make a major emergency of it. While there's chaos in the store, I'll fill the tank up on the car so that you'll have enough fuel to get to Arcadia Bay. I'll go to the hospital with Rae, and you go back to your friends."

"But what do I do with the car?" Max asked. "I can't keep it."

"What would I do with it?" Dom asked. "I don't drive and the chances are it'll be years before Rae can do anything like that again if at all."

"Are you sure?" Max asked.

"My mum would kill me if this thing never got used." Dom replied. "Now I know it'll be in the best possible hands."

"Dom, I can't take a car." Max said. "This is one of the only things you've got left."

"Yeah, and what good will it do me?" Dom asked "I'm terrified of driving and Rae can't feel her legs."

"Okay, here's what we'll do." Max wrote something down on a piece of paper from her bag and passed it to Dom. "This is my e-mail address. When Rae is able to use the car again, e-mail me her address and I will bring it to her. Until then, I will look after the car. Do we have a deal?"

"Yeah, it's a deal." Dom grinned, taking the paper. "If it helps you take a positive view on things, then that's what we'll do."

"Thanks, Dom." Max grinned. "In that case, we can leave when you and Rae are ready."

"I'll go and see if she's woken up yet." Dom left as Max climbed into the car. As she sat in there, she couldn't help but wonder what Chen had done with it when it was in use. It seemed to have stood the test of time quite well. There was virtually no rust present and the engine seemed to be working like a dream. Dom had really done a good job of fixing it. As she pondered this, Max noticed him carrying Rae towards the car. She got out and went to open the rear door. Max was reaching for the handle when she noticed that there actually wasn't one on that door. She raced round to the other side and opened it for them. Dom thanked her as he gently put Rae on the back seat and climbed in himself. He rested Rae's head on his lap so that he could hold her steady before strapping himself in.

"Are you ready?" Max asked.

"Yeah, we're ready to move." Rae nodded. Max turned on the engine and put the car into drive. She aimed it at the gate before easing through it.

"You are able to drive, aren't you?" Dom asked. Max couldn't help but worry that he'd taken that detail for granted until now.

"Yeah, I can drive. It's just been a while." Max replied. Luckily for her, the road was literally a straight line. That also helped to save fuel. She kept to a consistent sped of forty, meaning it should take them about an hour to get there.

Sure enough, after the longest hour of Rae's life, Max pulled up at the gas stop. Rae couldn't help but cry out as Max pulled to a halt and it swayed slightly on its worn shock absorbers.

"Okay, everyone remember the plan." Dom said. "By the way, how do we know what fuel this car takes?"

"I thought you would have worked that out." Max rolled her eyes. She got out and walked round, detaching the fuel cap from her car. She inhaled through her nose and the smell overpowered her. "That's definitely gasoline."

"They don't have that on the pump." Dom said, scrolling through the list. Max looked too before noticing that the pump was a seriously old one made in Britain.

"Okay, we want the one that says Petrol." Max told him. "Wait on filling it up until I go to the door and give you a thumbs-up or something." Dom nodded before leaning back against the car. Max walked in and found the girl working behind the till leaning over the counter. She looked like someone who had big plans for her life until it fell flat on its face. Max noticed her name badge said 'Kelly' and even though it was really early morning, she got the impression that Kelly was coming to the end of her shift.

"What do you want?" Kelly asked before breaking out in a coughing fit that sounded like she had half the desert stuck in her throat.

"I need you to call us an ambulance!" Max said, trying to add an urgent note to her voice. "My friends are in the back of my car and one of them can't feel her legs! She injured her back in an accident!"

"Oh, good lord..." Kelly sprang into life. She grabbed the phone from behind the counter and frantically dialled for an ambulance. Outside, Max could see Dom waiting for her signal. She flashed him a thumbs-up through the window and he started to fill the car with petrol. Max was snapped back to attention when she heard Kelly ask a question.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Max asked.

"I said, what's your friend's name?" Kelly asked.

"Her name's Rae." Max told her.

"What's her last name?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know. We've not long met." Max said. "Her brother's out there with her though. If I get him in here, he can give you more info than I could."

"Okay honey, get him in here." Kelly nodded. Max raced outside to find Dom.

"Okay, they're asking things I don't know the answers to, so we'll need to swap places." Max told him. Dom handed her the pump and raced inside. Max turned around and focused on the numbers on the pump. Suddenly, it was as if her rewind was working, but only on the pump meters. The numbers were reversing until there was no record of anyone having used it.

"That's just awesome and there's no other way to put it." Rae said weakly from her awkward angle on the seat.

"Do you want help straightening up a bit?" Max asked.

"That would be great if you could." Rae replied. "Just grab my legs and pull. I'll do the rest."

"You know, anyone else might have taken that totally the wrong way." Max muttered. Rae burst out laughing.

"Don't make me laugh!" she begged. "Laughing hurts my back!"

"Okay, I'm going to be really gentle here." Max reassured her as she gently moved her across the seat. Rae winced in pain, but was able to get herself into a better position.

"Thanks Max."

"It's not a problem." Max shrugged. She leaned against the car and waited. Eventually, they heard a siren in the distance. Dom walked out from the shop to see the ambulance pulling up. As the medics started talking to him and Max, more of them ran round to get Rae out of the car.

"Oh, there's no door handle on that side." Max chipped in as they looked at the door with confused expressions on their faces.

"Yeah, that's for security reasons." Dom laughed. "You'll have to get her out from the other side." Rae wasn't happy about the level of discomfort she was in as they hoisted her out the car and on to the gurney, but she took the opportunity to grin at Max and beckon her closer.

"What is it?" Max asked.

"That girl you said you were going back to; her name's Chloe, right?" Rae asked.

"Yeah, that's her name." Max nodded.

"Listen Max, you make sure she looks after you." Rae said, reaching up and resting a hand on Max's shoulder. "She doesn't know how lucky she is to have you."

"You don't need to worry about that." Max assured her. "Chloe loves me. She wouldn't hurt me for the world."

"That's good." Rae muttered as a medic gave her a sedative. "You deserve someone like that." Max was about to reply when she noticed Rae was drifting off.

"What's wrong with her?" Dom asked, running over.

"It's okay, she's not dying." Max replied, grabbing hold of him to stop him possibly killing a member of the emergency services. "They just gave her something to help with the pain. She'll be asleep for a little while." Dom took a second to process this before nodding.

"Sorry Max, I just panicked. I lost most of my family in the space of a second. I can't lose her too."

"Dom, that's perfectly normal." Max wrapped her arms around him to reassure him. "I remember when Chloe accidentally shot herself. I was going frantic. Rae's life has changed and it might be forever. Right now, she needs you to stay calm and not panic."

"Okay, I can just about do that." Dom replied as they heard the ambulance start up. "I should probably go now. Take care of yourself." Max let him go and watched as he climbed into the ambulance and they pulled away. She stood there for a while longer while she pondered what had happened over the last few days. This would be the first place she left that she truly missed. While she missed Chloe when she left for Seattle all those years ago, she couldn't say she missed Arcadia Bay. But this wasn't the first one she had a reason to come back to. She promised herself that she would come back at some point to check on Rae, Dom and the animals. Maybe she would even bring Chloe and Rachel.

"Are you okay there, sweetie?" Max looked up to see Kelly standing next to her with a hot BLT bagel. "You were looking a bit peaky. When was the last time you ate?"

"I can't remember." Max replied truthfully. "I know it was over twenty-four hours ago."

"Here you go then." Kelly gave her the food and took a carton of juice from the pocket in the front of her apron. "It's all on the house for you."

"Are you sure?" Max asked.

"I'm allowed to do this if there's ever an emergency." Kelly replied. "In my opinion, this qualifies."

"Thanks, that's really sweet of you." Max accepted the food and leaned against the car while she ate. Kelly waited until she was done before handing her the drink.

"There's a bin just behind you for when you're done." Kelly said. Max looked over to see a bin by the pump. Once she'd finished, she looked up to see that Kelly was gone. Max shrugged to herself. She'd probably gone back inside. She dumped her rubbish in the bin and got back into the car. She debated going to say thank you again, but decided against it. She had no money on her, so it wasn't like she could pay for any of it. It made her feel even worse about stealing the fuel too. Max decided that she couldn't dwell on it. The next time she came back, she'd pay for the fuel and the food. That would be her way of thanking Kelly.

Max pulled away from the fuel station with a growing tension inside her. She didn't know what awaited her in Arcadia Bay, but she'd face it with Chloe. As she drove, an unmistakable voice filtered into her head. This was the strongest she'd ever heard it. At first it threw her concentration off and nearly caused her to crash. Luckily, she managed to straighten up before anything serious happened and focus on it properly.

' _Never let your guard down, Max_. _For you, life has changed_.'

Life has Changed Episode 2-

End!


	8. Epilogue

Epilogue

The girl's day was going badly. First there had been trouble with Principle Wells when she bumped into him in the shop on the beer run. That had caused her to drop the entire case of beer she was carrying which they'd then made her pay for on top of the case she got to replace it, and to top it all off her mother was on the phone lecturing her about how late she was. Apparently everyone at the house was angry with her. Just then, she spotted someone she knew sitting in his car across the road and decided to have some fun.

"Can you tell them I'll be there sharply at 'go screw yourself' o'clock?" she asked. "Thanks Mum. Bye. I love you." She cut the phone off before her mum even had chance to reply. She pulled her truck up to the edge of the curb and got out. As she walked over, she took in the scene. The man had his passenger window wound down as a woman with probably the most out-of-proportion boobs she'd ever seen leaned into it.

' _Is it me, or are her boobs bigger than her body_?" she thought to herself. ' _It's the wonder she doesn't break her ribs_! _Those have to be HH at least_! Not letting that deter her, she neared the car and tapped on the driver's side window. The man in the car wound the window down as she leaned through.

"I think you need to clear off, honey!" the other woman said sharply to her as she grabbed a penknife from her belt loop.

"Actually, I think you're the one that needs to clear off." The girl reached into her back pocket and pulled a Smith and Wesson Airweight out. She held it up for everyone to see, causing the woman to realise she was hopelessly outgunned. She pulled her head out from the passenger window and strutted off.

"What do you want?" the man asked, barely suppressing a groan.

"I just felt that we didn't get to know each other properly last time we met." The girl looked down to see his wallet sticking out of his pocket. "That's a really nice piece there. Can I have a look?" The man went to block her but she was having none of it. "You don't have to pass it to me, I can get it myself." She reached down and grabbed it from his pocket before opening it. "Wow, this is real leather." She nodded in admiration. "If it weren't for your cocaine sales, you'd never manage to afford this."

"Please don't..." The man's begging fell on deaf ears as she opened his wallet.

"Oh Ted, for a second I was worried you actually didn't have a wife and kids. That would have been no fun, would it?" the girl asked rhetorically. "What's your wife's name?"

"You don't need to..."

"What's her name, Ted?" the girl asked; a harder edge to her voice.

"Her name's Anna." Ted looked ready to burst into tears.

"Do you have a phone I can check the time on?" the girl asked. "Mine ran out of battery as I was driving." Ted pulled his phone out and went to read the time out for her.

"It's..."

"Oh, come on; I want to see this." The girl snatched his phone from his hand and started scrolling through his speed dial. Ted went to snatch the phone back, only for her to grab his wrist and wrench it around viciously. "You really don't want to do that!" she advised as the phone started ringing. "Hi, is that Anna?" she asked. "Yeah, this is Chloe Price... ... No, I'm not a cop. I just thought you should know that I've just caught your husband with a known prostitute who also has a reputation for cocaine dealing. ... ... Yes, they were at least HH. Oh, so this isn't the first time then?" Ted cried out in pain as Chloe wrenched his wrist further.

"Anna, she's lying!" he screamed.

"Yeah, that's him now." Chloe continued, ignoring Ted's screams completely. "He's crying because I'm breaking his hand. ... What was that, babe? I didn't catch that." Chloe took the phone away from her ear with an evil look in her eyes. "She says to do it harder." With that, she slammed Ted's wrist into the car window frame before jumping up and landing on it in a sitting position. The sudden pressure was too much for Ted's wrist, which spontaneously shattered. "You need to trust your instincts, Anna." Chloe told her. "He's no good for you."

"Stop poisoning my wife with lies, you flat-chested-" Chloe reached in and slapped him before he got chance to finish.

"No, that's not a problem, Anna." Chloe continued. "I'll make sure he can't call you eighty times to get you back. Okay, I'll catch you later then." With that, Chloe hung up and ripped the battery out of Ted's phone before dropping it down the drain at the end of the curb.

"Do you know what a mistake you just made?" Ted was red in the face from pain and fury.

"She's burning all your stuff tonight." Chloe said, brushing off the threat as if it were nothing. She was about to return to her pickup truck when she noticed a damaged white Peugeot pull in. Through the windscreen, she could see the driver. She couldn't believe it at first. Only one thought registered in her mind.

' _Who the hell is that_?'

 **Author's Note: Special Announcement! Life has Changed Episode 3- COMING SOON!**


End file.
